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Managing FlexGroup volumes

You can manage FlexGroup volumes by performing operations such as monitoring the space usage, increasing the capacity, adding constituents, setting quota rules, creating Snapshot copies, and moving the constituents of FlexGroup volumes.

  • Monitoring the space usage of a FlexGroup volume
    You can view a FlexGroup volume and its constituents, and monitor the space used by the FlexGroup volume.
  • Increasing the size of a FlexGroup volume
    You can increase the size of a FlexGroup volume either by adding more capacity to the existing constituents of the FlexGroup volume or by expanding the FlexGroup volume with new constituents.
  • Reducing the size of a FlexGroup volume
    Starting with ONTAP 9.6, you can resize a FlexGroup volume to a value lower than its current size to free up the unused space from the volume. When you reduce the size of a FlexGroup volume, ONTAP automatically resizes all of the FlexGroup constituents.
  • Configuring FlexGroup volumes to automatically grow and shrink their size
    Starting with ONTAP 9.5, you can configure FlexGroup volumes to automatically grow and shrink according to how much space they currently require.
  • Performing a fast directory delete by deleting files and directories asynchronously
    It is recommended that you use the REST API to delete your directory. Starting with ONTAP 9.8, you can also use thevolume file async-delete command to delete files and directories from Linux and Windows client shares in the background. You can perform asynchronous delete on both FlexVol and FlexGroup volumes.
  • Creating qtrees with FlexGroup volumes
    Starting with ONTAP 9.5, you can create qtrees with FlexGroup volumes. Qtrees enable you to partition your FlexGroup volumes into smaller segments that you can manage individually.
  • Using quotas for FlexGroup volumes
    Starting with ONTAP 9.5, you can enforce limits on quota rules that are applied to FlexGroup volumes.
  • Enabling storage efficiency on a FlexGroup volume
    You can run deduplication and data compression together or independently on a FlexGroup volume to achieve optimal space savings.
  • Protecting FlexGroup volumes using Snapshot copies
    You can create Snapshot policies that automatically manage the creation of Snapshot copies or you can manually create Snapshot copies for FlexGroup volumes. A valid Snapshot copy is created for a FlexGroup volume only after ONTAP can successfully create a Snapshot copy for each constituent of the FlexGroup volume.
  • Moving the constituents of a FlexGroup volume
    You can move the constituents of a FlexGroup volume from one aggregate to another for balancing the load when certain constituents experience more traffic. Moving constituents also helps in freeing up space on an aggregate for resizing the existing constituents.
  • Using aggregates in FabricPool for existing FlexGroup volumes
    Starting with ONTAP 9.5, FabricPool is supported for FlexGroup volumes. If you want to use aggregates in FabricPool for your existing FlexGroup volumes, you can either convert the aggregates on which the FlexGroup volume resides to aggregates in FabricPool or migrate the FlexGroup volume constituents to aggregates in FabricPool.